Monday, August 17, 2015

Allergies... and even more allergies


I started this blog already aware of my own issues with milk products and certain raw fruits: apples, peaches, nectarines, plums, sometimes cantaloupe. Then it became clear my daughter was dealing with something. Wheat is definitely a problem, but we don't know at this point if it's just wheat or all of gluten. What we do know is that the flour used at her work is highly refined and does not make her sick the way other wheat flours do.

She has also realized that chocolate affects her poorly, as does too much dairy.

And then we found out about another allergy (or sensitivity; it's just easier to say "allergy") the hard way: through hours of violent vomiting.

The first time it happened, we thought maybe it was a bug or something. Or a cominbation of foods. Couldn't figure it out.

Second time it happened, still couldn't figure it out.

Third time it happened, we started suspecting Bob's Red Mills' All-Purpose Flour Blend (the one with garbanzo bean flour).

The fourth time it happened, eating an Amy's Burrito with chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and garbanzo bean flour finally clued us in: she's allergic to chickpeas.

At that point, I was very glad we hadn't bought anything from Babycakes NYC when we were in DisneyWorld in June. Why? Well, the first vomting session was after the doughnuts from the Babycakes book. The third vomiting session was from crêpes made from a recipe from that book. Several of her recipes use that flour. It's not too far to think that that's what she uses in much of her baking at the stores.

Of course, this adds an extra difficult element when we're out and about. If she wants to eat gluten-free, she needs to be careful about what she's ordering and what it's made with. A small amount of chickpeas makes her far more ill than wheat/gluten does. She is not completely wheat-free with her diet and with this now popping up, it'll mean it takes precedence over eating wheat-free.

I am going to go back to what I've said before: if we all just switched to a raw food diet (and clearly avoided chickpeas in her case), this would all be taken care of. lol

Speaking of Disney, I do have some things to share about our trip and eating dairy- and gluten-free there. But that will have to be another day. I will say quickly that Disney World is actually a pretty great place if you have those two allergies. Lots of stuff you can eat.